Spirits in Bondage by C.S. Lewis. Book 29 of 2022

Spirits in Bondage is the work of a young man, a teenager.  In those years, between ages 15 and 18, C.S. Lewis lived through some of the highest and lowest experiences of his young life. 

He finished his preparation for University (Oxford) being tutored by W.T. Kirkpatrick.  In his autobiography Surprised by Joy, Lewis said these were the best years of his early education. By contrast, the title of the chapter about his first school was "Belsen." 

At age 17, Lewis went to Oxford. Soon after arriving he volunteered to serve in World War I. He was Irish and did not have to serve, but he did.  He was twice wounded, nearly killed both times.  

When I read these poems I tried to keep his life experience in mind.  The range of the poems and beliefs they express gave me a feeling of what this brilliant and sensitive young man must have felt in the rapid changes his life endured from the intense learning with Kirkpatrick, the wonder of Oxford, then leading men in battle in the horror of World War I.

If you are a fan of C.S.Lewis, these poems will give you a window into his early life. He wanted to be a poet. He became a literary critic, novelist, Christian apologist, and essayist, but not the poet he hoped to be. 

 

First 28 books of 2022:

Reflections on the Psalms by  C.S. Lewis

The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler by David I. Kertzer

The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Hannah Arendt

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

The Echo of Greece by Edith Hamilton

If This Isn't Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut

The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium by Barry S. Strauss. 

Civil Rights Baby by Nita Wiggins

Lecture's on Kant's Political Philosophy by Hannah Arendt

Le grec ancien facile par Marie-Dominique Poree

The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay

First Principles by Thomas Ricks

Political Tribes by Amy Chua 

Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen

A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters by Andrew Knoll

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

Understanding Beliefs by Nils Nilsson

1776 by David McCullough

The Life of the Mind by Hannah Arendt

Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson

How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss

Unflattening by Nick Sousanis

Marie Curie  by Agnieszka Biskup (en francais)

The Next Civil War by Stephen Marche

Fritz Haber, Volume 1 by David Vandermeulen